Does anyone have any ideas?

Question

Waste awareness week is comming up soon in scotland and as a member of my schools evironment committee I need ideas for something to do on computors one lunchtime for first years(age11/12). Can anyone help me out?

Answer 1

Assign the kids to work in teams of two. Have them look up various facts and figures about waste and recycling, both worldwide and locally (or have local statistics available to share with them in a discussion group at the end). Ask them to look up questions such as:

1) What is the largest man-made structure on the planet (Fresh Kills landfill)
2) What happens to computer trash? (most goes to landfills designated in poor regions of China)
3) What % of glass is recycled worldwide? How much volume is this?
4) How much resource effort is required to produce 1 KW of energy? How much does it cost to run a 100 watt bulb for 8 hours?
5) How is waste related to the deforestation rate?
6) What does population have to do with this topic?
7) Finally, what are some innovative solutions for recycling waste (think of the turkey and trash to fuel initiatives in the US, recycling tires to make sidewalks and roads, using tin cans to protect seedlings in 3rd World countries, using manure to rasie worms and fertilize fields, etc. )
8) Compare world figures with local ones, and then ask the questions about how they can work from home to reduce what is thrown away.

Answer 2

Have a knowlege treasure hunt around the websites of your local recycling center, a water treatment centre, power station - renewable/non-renewable. See what they're doing in comparison to other local authorities?
Maybe compare energy saving solutions being researched by fuel companies (shell, BP etc...)
Cutting carbon emmisions are a big topic right now?
Alternative energy sources for the near future and there impact on the environment?

Answer 3

You could research ideas using the net.
Or powerpoint presentation on the importance of recycling.

Or
Study the contents of a watse bin (preferably with gloves) Do a graph in excel on the contents and then present ideas to what uses the items could have had instead of being thrown away.
Hope that helps.

Answer 4

hi rather than look into just the waste recycling how about looking into the amount of energy used in making the raw products into the materials used
ie aluminium for instance the amount of energy used to make this from the raw materials is quite considerable so recycling cans is very important once you understand this
today kids only see the finished product and dont understand what goes into making it and the resources used
so by saving ally cans your also saving gas/electric used in the process allong with raw materials
this type of research project can very interesting and eye opening to those involved
regards steve payne

Answer 5

If you have access to the Internet, they could research ways to reduce the amount of waste produced at home, and create a list of the top 5. An example, is to use china and silverware instead of using disposable paper plates and plastic flatware.
Other tips can be found here: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/RECYCLE/facts/reduce.htm

Answer 6

Take a digicam in for them to photograph some types of waste [unless they use their own at home] . They can print them off as part of their work/project. or,,,,
Download picture of things made from recycled materials. With research statistics etc.

Answer 7

Design a poster or leaflet promoting the ideas

Answer 8

Make lists of any rubbish that can be recycled and where it should be taken .Print this out on recycled paper !

Answer 9

nada